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I took a DNA test and the results are that I am 13% Portugal and 10% Spain and 10% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, and then mixed with others. I am 38% Native American from Central America and 10% Native American- Andean which is the region of Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. The Native American percentages don't even say what from specific country or the Native American group. I don't like the fact it's not specific enough. I thought that Spain percentage would be higher than Portugal since it was Spain that invaded my country. Is 13% too low for me to claim I am Portugal? How high does the percentage have to be? If I say I am Native American people will ask from what group, what country, etc... And I don't know the answers to that. Portugal is my highest percentage when it comes to the actual country.

I think alot of people don't understand the limitations to these type of tests.
DNA tests are not designed to tell you your ancestry really (that is, except for like paternity tests). No test in the world can tell you that. They just tell you how accurately you match the DNA characteristics of people from that region. There is an extreme error rate to this method so take whatever results you get with a grain of salt. Detail by country or tribe, forget it.

I took a DNA test and the results are that I am 13% Portugal and 10% Spain and 10% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, and then mixed with others. I am 38% Native American from Central America and 10% Native American- Andean which is the region of Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. The Native American percentages don't even say what from specific country or the Native American group. I don't like the fact it's not specific enough. I thought that Spain percentage would be higher than Portugal since it was Spain that invaded my country. Is 13% too low for me to claim I am Portugal? How high does the percentage have to be? If I say I am Native American people will ask from what group, what country, etc... And I don't know the answers to that. Portugal is my highest percentage when it comes to the actual country.

This is just an estimate there is quite a bit of overlap between the two populations particularly along border towns. There is now way 13% of your ancestors are of Portuguese ancestry. I do think that some Portuguese did settle in just about every Spanish colony though. I have a reliable genetic match that is half Guatemala and half El Salvador. I recall there being a very high ranking person among the early colonial settlers of Guatemala of partial Portuguese heritage in fact he had royal lineages. That's a pretty good clue other much lower ranking soldiers were also present.

I took a DNA test and the results are that I am 13% Portugal and 10% Spain and 10% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, and then mixed with others. I am 38% Native American from Central America and 10% Native American- Andean which is the region of Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. The Native American percentages don't even say what from specific country or the Native American group. I don't like the fact it's not specific enough. I thought that Spain percentage would be higher than Portugal since it was Spain that invaded my country. Is 13% too low for me to claim I am Portugal? How high does the percentage have to be? If I say I am Native American people will ask from what group, what country, etc... And I don't know the answers to that. Portugal is my highest percentage when it comes to the actual country.

According to my knowledge, if you are one eighth of something, anything really, you can still claim it.

According to my knowledge, if you are one eighth of something, anything really, you can still claim it.

Not even that with certain groups.

For example, 1/16th is enough to enroll in the Eastern band of Cherokee in the US.

Op, you're roughly half Native and a substantial amount of European; so that makes you mestizo as it comes. Claim all of it. DNA companies typically group Portugal and Spain under the broader "Iberian Peninsula" category; you are nearly a quarter of that. Historically, they are pretty much the same people, if I'm not mistaken. Portuguese, as a language, has about a 85% similarity with Spanish, so it probably wouldn't be difficult to learn it when you know the latter.

For example, 1/16th is enough to enroll in the Eastern band of Cherokee in the US.

Op, you're roughly half Native and a substantial amount of European; so that makes you mestizo as it comes. Claim all of it. DNA companies typically group Portugal and Spain under the broader "Iberian Peninsula" category; you are nearly a quarter of that. Historically, they are pretty much the same people, if I'm not mistaken. Portuguese, as a language, has about a 85% similarity with Spanish, so it probably wouldn't be difficult to learn it when you know the latter.

I am one percent Jewish and I still claim Jewish heritage, I am just not religiously Jewish.

I don't see what the big deal is.

I mean if a man can say he is a woman why can't someone with thirteen percent Portuguese lineage say he is Portuguese?

Makes no sense to me.

He can claim it but real Portuguese people won't consider him one of them. At this point it is even dubious he has Portuguese ancestry as these ethnicity estimate tests have a lot of trouble distinguishing Spaniards from Galicia and the Portuguese. The estimate is picking up shared SNP's nothing more the amount of Portuguese soldiers that settled in central America was a drop in the bucket and like I said 90+ percent of the people can't make heads or tails out of these estimates anyway they either interpret them literally or make up their own interpretations.

He can claim it but real Portuguese people won't consider him one of them. At this point it is even dubious he has Portuguese ancestry as these ethnicity estimate tests have a lot of trouble distinguishing Spaniards from Galicia and the Portuguese. The estimate is picking up shared SNP's nothing more the amount of Portuguese soldiers that settled in central America was a drop in the bucket and like I said 90+ percent of the people can't make heads or tails out of these estimates anyway they either interpret them literally or make up their own interpretations.

I'll give you an example Ancestry estimates me as 75% Portuguese 19% Spaniard and 6% Northwestern Europe. I have no Spaniard ancestors within the last 500-600 years and a handful the century prior to that I have a very good genealogy. I do have a few from North western Europe though recorded in the late 1400's. I'm from a very well documented area and a good 2,000 people have been tested from the region including many Y-DNA tests there are no recent lines shared with Spaniards. These tests pick up a historical time when these populations mixed much more about 1,000 years ago and therefore shared SNP's. I'm going to guess lots of Conquistadores from Extremadura, Spain settled in central America as they have in the southwest of the USA. You do realize Portugal has been a country for a good 900 years and Spain about 500. These shared SNP's(13%) largely predate that era. Do yourself a favor don't start identifying as Portuguese because of your ethnicity estimate you'll be laughed at. If you truly have the ancestry you'll have a ton of Portuguese matches on your list.

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